UPO gen bezel fitting - how to.

[Rovin]

This is a part of a very long project, my fault as I decided to thread fit a gen crown tube and am still trying to find a tap. In the mean time, I figured I have time to fool with other parts.
After some amount of 'I wonder if this will work' I decided to bite the bullet and get the bezel mod show on the road.
I approached it deciding that machining and grinding the rep bezel was going to be a smarter way than touching the gen part.
So while I have a lathe, you don't need one. So I machined off all but the part you see on the right, the final metal reduction was done with a bench grinder and fractional sanding of the gen bezel with emery cloth. All the time checking it for fit in the gen bezel.
I knew I needed to keep the machined spring groove from the rep so the bezel could be retained on the case. And that there would be just enough metal to allow this when machining the rep bezel from outside in. Just had to make sure I got the sizing correct to allow the rep 'ring' to be a tight interference fit.
In the end, the rep ring needed to protrude slightly over the gen teeth to allow the bezel to rotate. YMMV.
I will add the hole drilling for the click spring once I have a 1mm drill bit.

Now for the pics of the bezel. In the first ones, gen bezel on left and what's left of the rep bezel on right.

 

[Mr. Pap]

******* awesome!!!!!!! Very clever, i love it! I believe we can call this problem solved now?

Hands down for an amazing mod!!!

 

[Rovin]

Had to drill the case to accept the gen bezel spring retaining tab. Just a 1mm cobalt drill and put a hole at exactly the centre of the case landing at 12 o'clock.
I needed to put packing under the bezel spring (used some JB Weld) and ended up having to file the teeth off the rep adapter ring so it fitted without fouling the case surface when mounted into the gen bezel.
Also had to use a curved file to remove some of the inner metal from the gen bezel spring so the rep 'spacer' didn't foul the click tabs. Measure the clearance by placing the spacer ring into the watch without the full bezel attached.
Getting the spacer at exactly the right height so that the bezel was evenly tight on the case took about six goes. Mostly as I had nothing capable of measuring the damn thing. It's perfect now though, and I used a thinned down JB Weld mix to hold the rep spacer firmly to the gen bezel. If you are nuts enough to attempt this mod, go sparingly on the JB Weld.......

As for the bezel insert, the spacer ring sat into the portion of the gen bezel that accepts the bezel insert extrusion (you'll know what I mean if you have one), so I had to file the insert extrusion down to 0.5mm and use a little glue to make sure it stays. It did still click into place solidly, but a little insurance doesn't hurt.

 

[sunnydale]

Great job!

 

[Rovin]

It's alive!!

 

[surf]

BAM BISCUIT!!! Can you get me one of those rings?

 

[Rovin]

Sorry mate, it was home made. It's a machined down version of the rep bezel.
And it was a bit of a bitch to make!

Totally worth it though, I've put my gen 16613 back in the safe to wear my Omega UPO rep!!!!

 

[R2D4]

Brilliant! That is tedious work mate. My hat goes off to you.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Q5?]

Thinking outside the box rep points to you!

 

[drbollocko]

Very well done Rovin, great problem solving!

 

[sunnydale]

Great skills! Congrats!

 

[surf]

Sorry mate, it was home made. It's a machined down version of the rep bezel.
And it was a bit of a bitch to make!

Totally worth it though, I've put my gen 16613 back in the safe to wear my Omega UPO rep!!!!

LOL it was worth a shot!! Great job wear with pride!

 

[Rovin]

Thanks guys!
Before building it, I wondered what all the fuss was about and thought I might not even like PO's that much. Boy, was I wrong!!
Specs on this one are:
Gen parts: hands, dial, date wheel, crystal, case back, bezel and bezel insert, bezel spring, he valve, crown, stem, crown tube and a NOS Jaques Lemans ETA movement.
Other work: Filed and drilled SEL's for better tight fit to case and adjusted clasp retaining springs. Fitting of operational bezel.

 

[surf]

WOW that is one of the top 5 Frankens I have seen. Mine is similar just not the Gen Bezel assembly just insert. I did score a gen movement so that is kinda cool. My crystal and hands have on order from Ofrei for 6 weeks so right now I have a bracelet. Inhushuk and Sunny are only to others to do what you have done!! Points for you mate!

Your watch is TITS!!!

 

[Rovin]

You got a 2500? Score!!